* It’s official. Next month the ABC Coalition, the business group formed by former St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker to assess the Tampa Bay Rays’ options, will make a presentation to the Hillsborough County Commission. They will, among other things, make a pitch for the need for a Trop replacement, one that includes a couple of possible venues in Hillsborough County. And the Commission will, of course, just listen politely and avoid any accusation of tortious interference by St. Pete lawyers.
That the Commission invited ABC makes eminent sense. Everyone from Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig to Rays’ owner Stu Sternberg to everyone not connected to St. Pete City Hall knows the Rays will be long gone from the Trop before their lease is officially up in 2027.
The goal is to make sure the Rays are not long gone from Tampa Bay. The franchise is a regional asset, and this region can’t afford to be held hostage to counterproductive, inter-county subplots. What really doesn’t make sense is that the St. Petersburg City Council still hasn’t invited ABC, which has made numerous presentations around this market, to personally deliver its post-Trop pitch. In fact, SPCC isn’t even in the on-deck circle — out of fear, presumably, that they would appear to be countenancing a relocation scenario.
Meanwhile, potential suitors are hoping this exercise in bush league provincialism and mindless myopia continues long enough to convince the Rays that their future is in Charlotte, San Antonio or Portland. And not, of course, in St. Petersburg — or where they really regionally belong to make logistical and financial sense: Tampa.
* When the starting players were introduced before the women’s NCAA basketball championship game, their majors were also included. For national champ Connecticut, psychology was the most popular. Interestingly enough, star player Maya Moore, a junior All-American, is (still) majoring in “Individual Studies,” whatever that means.
* Speaking of hoops, despite its tradition of success and superiority, the national champion Duke University men’s basketball team still seemed a forced typecast as Goliath against Butler’s David. Mid-major, 4,200-student Butler against almost anybody else — not just a “one-and-done,” John Calipari-coached Kentucky — would have more than warranted its half of the David and Goliath scenario. But Duke, unlike its peers at the pinnacle of the college game, still recruits student athletes and coach Mike Krzyzewski still runs a classy program with kids who still graduate with degrees in meaningful majors. They also have fewer tattoos.
* If you’re from out of town and go to a Rays game to root for your hometown team, you’re most welcome and enjoy your stay. The Rays can use your business, the region appreciates your visit and your allegiance in an opponent’s home field is understandable. And, OK, wear those Jeter and Papelbon jerseys, if you must, although they still seem more appropriate for those 10 and under.
But if you live here? Sorry, that’s really annoying. There’s a home team where your home now is. Support it.
And doesn’t it seem like the transplants — notably New York and Boston much more so than Chicago — are the loudest and most obnoxious?
It’s not like following your alma mater wherever you go. We get that. But you have to be born somewhere. Leave it there.
*I’ve covered it; it has its intriguing elements; but I’m really no fan of open-wheeled, street racing. I prefer, well, athletics. Anyhow, I noticed that three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves won last Sunday’s Grand Prix of Alabama. I’ve really lost touch.
I get the Monaco Grand Prix, the Belgian Grand Prix , the San Marino Grand Prix as well as the Bahrain Grand Prix, the Caesar’s Palace Grand Prix and the St. Petersburg Grand Prix. But the Grand Prix of Alabama?